Bharti Airtel said an international consortium comprising the leading Indian telecoms firm had launched a undersea cable that directly connects Japan and the west coast of the United States.

Bharti Airtel said on Thursday an international consortium comprising the leading Indian telecoms firm had launched a undersea cable that directly connects Japan and the west coast of the United States.

Global Transit, Google, KDDI Corp, Pacnet and SingTel are the other partners in the consortium that built the cable for about $300 million, Bharti said in a statement.

Bharti this week tied up a $9 billion deal to buy Kuwaiti telecom Zain's assets in 15 African countries and said it would become the world's fifth-largest wireless operator.

The Indian telecoms firm fully owns the i2i undersea cable systems and is consortium partner for five global undersea cable systems.